Demeter and Persephone

Question 1

Who is Demeter? What is she the goddess of?

Answer 1

-Sister of Zeus
-Daughter of Rhea and Cronus
-Goddess of grain and the harvest; fertility; cycle of life and death in nature and in humanity
-Deo (name used specifically in terms of her religion)

Question 2

Iconography of Demeter

Answer 2

-Wheat-sheaf
-Red poppy
-Cornucopia (symbol of abundance)
-Often seen veiled
-Sometimes has a crown

Question 3

Who is Persephone? Iconography?

Answer 3

-Also called Kore (girl)
-Daughter of Demeter and Zeus (shares mom’s iconography)
-Iconography
-As Queen of the Dead, often enthroned
-Collecting flowers in the field
-Hair generally worn down

Question 4

Eleusinian Mysteries

Answer 4

-Eleusis: town which was the center of the religion and the ceremony that had developed in honor of Demeter and Persephone
-Eleusinian Mysteries: “mystery cult” where members were sworn to absolute secrecy
-Open to all: male and female, free and slave, who spoke Greek and had not committed murder
-Lesser Mysteries: purified initiates and prepared them for the Greater Mysteries, held annually in the spring
–> involved sacrifice, prayer, fasting, and cleansing by water

Question 5

Rites in honor of Demeter

Answer 5

-From Bronze Age through CE
-Visitors from all over the world
-Secret initiation
-Hierophant: highest title of priesthood who would reveal the Hiera (sacred objects) to worshipers

Question 6

Homeric Hymn to Demeter

Answer 6

-The abduction of Persephone by Hades
-Demeter’s anguish leads her to Eleusis
-The reunion of Demeter and Persephone